PARIS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- France's consumer price index (CPI) stood at 1.2 percent in February, slightly down from 1.3 percent in January, the national statistics bureau Insee, said on Tuesday.
"This slight slowdown is expected to be the result of a sharp decline in the prices of manufactured products, largely offset by an acceleration in the prices of tobacco and energy and a more moderate one for food and services," the report said.
Costs of manufactured products were set to decrease by 1.6 percent while energy prices would sharply grow by 11.4 percent over the period, Insee's provisional data showed.
On monthly basis, the CPI, the country's main inflation gauge, is expected to inch up by 0.1 percent due to a rebound in services prices.
Final data on French inflation for this month will be released on March 15.
